When I bought my ticket for last night’s game I thought it would be a possible clinching game for the Warriors, not a possible elimination game. This series against the Oklahoma City Thunder has been a body-blow to the self-esteem of Dub Nation; suddenly our team is back on its heels, struggling to stay alive against a seemingly unbeatable opponent.

So the energy in Oracle Arena last night was nervous. Everyone was pumped, but you could sense an underlying dread — God, what if we lose this one and have to spend the whole offseason listening to the Warriors haters (of which there are many all of a sudden) crowing about the great regular season and playoff choke?

Well, it didn’t happen last night, thank the Basketball Gods. The Warriors led almost the whole game and while they could never pull away — thanks to 71 points from the beastly duo of Westbrook and Durant — they never really looked rattled. We, the crowd, helped a lot by cheering on every possession and chanting “De-fense” every time the Thunder touched the ball. In fact I’m going to give us the MVP for the game.

Give some credit to to Steph Curry, who put up 30 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals despite the fact that he still doesn’t look quite right (there has been a lot of talk about whether he is more injured than he’s letting on, but we many never know for sure). Draymond Green, after two straight god-awful games, looked a little more like himself (13 rebounds, 11 points, great defense and some huge blocks). Oh, and Bogut chipped in 15 points and 14 boards — not half-bad — and Klay added a ho-hum 27 points. And I would be remiss in not mentioning Mo Speights, who scored 14 in 9 minutes. (Maybe he should be playing more? That’s for Coach Kerr to decide.)

But mostly it was all about us, the fans. Unfortunately we won’t be there tomorrow when the W’s face the mighty challenge of Game 6 in Oklahoma City. We’ll just have to be extra-loud in our homes and places of worship (i.e. bars) to make up for it. Get some rest today.